“You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.”

KF on a deeply depressing attitude. The flavour of this here blog—particularly its omissions—has undoubtedly been affected by the “academic appearances” conundrum since the word go (and especially in the past 12-18 months), but the sort of attitudes KF discusses makes me think I needn’t have bothered being judicious—what’s the point, when you’re screwed either way? “Dear Mr Lodge, we would offer you the position, but we’re a bit worried about all those novels you write.”

The BBC site was down earlier, but here’s their coverage. (Partly to send that last post under the fold; I wrote it less than a day ago and already it seems like stale newspaper.)